The Night Dragons
by NovaJane
Summary: An injured dragon, hungry and cold and all alone looks up to the stars and screams. A Toothless-centric story taking place after his injury that left him grounded, but before his friendship with Hiccup develops.


The Night Dragons

He wondered when it would happen - when he would be freed from the bindings that kept him anchored to the earth and he would take up flight once again; when he would take up flight one final time to join those millions of Night Dragons illuminating the night sky.

They were out in full force that night, flying so high - higher than he ever could even before his wings stopped working. They were flying so high up in the pitch black sky that only the tiny pinpricks of their fire was visible to him. He never paid them much thought before. They never amounted to any importance outside of being the subject of stories meant to lull to sleep tiny dragon hatchlings with the scent of eggshells still fresh on their tender scales. They would all grow up to become Night Dragons, or so he was told. They were what remained of every dragon that had ever lived or would ever live. They were their elders, their ancestors, and would be their progeny. When a dragon's time on earth had come to an end, he would fly off to another land far above the clouds to join them. And that was to be his place. One day he too would fly up to those Night Dragons and would join them in their permanent flight, adding his own light to their display. And then sometime later - many many years in the future, a new litter would look up at the dark sky speckled with the fire of the Night Dragons and they would see him there while their mother relayed that same story to them.

There were so many out that night and not a cloud in the sky to obscure them. He wondered if they were there to light his way to them. He had fallen out of the sky, he had not eaten in so many days, and he was getting tired. So very tired. No, it should not be long now before he joined them. He wondered if they would even take him – ever since he fell out of the sky, his wings no longer worked. How could he fly up to them without his wings? Would he be confined to earth even as a Night Dragon?

He would find out soon enough. His strength was leaving him. It would not be much longer.

He thought about the human boy, the foolish little thing he sometimes spied lurking around that lake. He was quite a curiosity, that boy who was a member of the same clan as the human that did this to him. Humans usually avoided their kind unless provoked, but that boy held no such fear of him. A part of him wanted to see that boy again. He hated being alone with the echos of his own cries of agony being the only voice he heard anymore. He wondered if the boy would show up and see him off as he took his final flight. He hoped that he would. It would be fitting, considering their first meeting. That quivering little thing with his skinny arms clutching the blade meant to kill him that first day. He was frighted then, terrified to leave the only world he ever knew. But that was before he knew the full extent of the situation he was facing. Before he knew about the starvation and the freezing cold nights away from the fires of his island. And the absolute dead silence and loneliness in the middle of the night. His only company those days were the birds who mocked him with their pretty songs and their functioning wings, and that boy, whenever he dared to come around to spy a peek. A boy with more courage than wits. He wished that boy would come back with his little blade and slit his throat and be done with it. Or just sit there behind a boulder and watch him quietly. It was not much but he did appreciate his company.

But really, he wanted relief from all his pain. Yes, a quick death was certainly more desirable now that he knew the feeling of hunger pangs gnawing away in his belly and knowing that he was utterly powerless to do anything about them.

He cried out to the Night Dragons, begging them for food or relief or mercy. Though he had been crying out to them every night and they never answered. Why would they? They only existed in stories.

He wondered who it was who took the shot that tore him out of the sky. Somebody from that boy's clan, of that he was sure. He wondered if they could look into his eyes and see all his pain and suffering and if they would feel pity for him. His heart swelled with bitterness. He wondered what they looked like. Did they have kind eyes like that boy? No, probably not. He wished to see that human just once. He was saving his flames just for them. He would use his dying breath to immolate that human and watch their skin crack and peel away from their flesh while they screamed in agony.

He cried out to the Night Dragons once again, this time for vengeance. He begged them, that if they were truly more than just the subject of quaint little stories for hatchlings, that they would hear him on that night. He begged them to see what was done to him, and he begged them to show the human who knocked him out of the sky the pain that he felt. That they would know what it felt like to suffer just as he had.

The next day, the Night Dragons answered his first prayer. Their kindness manifested in the form of that foolish human boy offering him a fish. It was long dead and reeked of decay but he devoured it and relished every bite. After that his strength returned, and soon he was catching his own fish again, and even flying.

Once he began flying again, he forgot about his prayers to the Night Dragons, those cries for vengeance. He wasted no more energy mulling over dark thoughts involving the faceless one who hurt him. He had his health and he had friendship, that was all he needed.

But the Night Dragons did not forget.

Fin.

Note: This is just an idea that came up for Not so Fireproof on the Outside. (How Maybe!Hiccup realized the exact moment that Toothless figured out that he was the one who shot him down, when the throwaway curse he made during his weakest and darkest moments was fulfilled through Hiccup's fall and injury). I'm not sure if this will make it's way into that story since this is way darker than I want to go with that one, but I loved the idea and had to let it shine on it's own.


End file.
